Right: Hetty Johnston, from the antichild abuse group Bravehearts, was one of the first to demand that the Henson images be removed from the public gaze.
web links and documents
On May 22, 2008, The Sydney Morning Herald published a comment by Miranda Devine titled, 'Moral backlash over sexing up of our children'. The piece deals generally with the commercial sexual exploitation of children, however, it opens with an attack on the upcoming Henson Sydney exhibition as an instance of this.It was this article which provoked talkback radio interest in the exhibition and then the interest of Hetty Johnston and subsequently the New South Wales police.
The full text of Miranda Devine's comment can be found at http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/moral-backlash-over-sexing-up-of-our-children/2008/05/21/1211182891875.html
On May 26, 2008, The Sydney Morning Herald published a comment by Paul Sheehan which, while ambivalent on the place of Bill Henson's work within the debate on the commercial sexual exploitation of children, argued that this is a long-overdue discussion which Australia needs to have.
The opinion piece, titled, 'Artists crying out for martyrdom', can be read at http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/artists-crying-out-for-martyrdom/2008/05/25/1211653841090.html
On May 28, 2008, 45 representatives of the Australian arts community who had attended the 2020 summit as 'Creative Australia' signed on open letter to the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, expressing their support for Bill Henson and their concern over what they believe is an attack on freedom of artistic expression.
The full text of this letter can be found at http://www.abc.net.au/news/opinion/documents/files/20080528_hensonletter.pdf
On May 28, 2008, The Sydney Morning Herald published a comment from Elizabeth Farrell essentially arguing that different standards of judgement should be applied to art. The opinion piece titled, 'Adults overboard in the frenzy to sniff out smut' can be found at http://www.smh.com.au/news/elizabeth-farrelly/adults-overboard-in-the-frenzy-to-sniff-out-smut/2008/05/27/1211654026711.html
On May 29, 2008, the Internet commentary site, On Line Opinion, published a piece defending artistic freedom of expression and giving an overview of Australia's supposed tendency toward undue censorship. The piece is titled, 'Fearing reality: Bill Henson and the Australian wowser'. It is written by Binoy Kampmark and can be found at http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=7438
On June 7, 2008, The Sydney Morning Herald published an Alan Moir cartoon critical of the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd's position on the work of Bill Henson. This cartoon can be seen at http://www.smh.com.au/cartoons/
Bravehearts is a support, advocacy and education organisation which aims to eliminate child abuse. The group's founder, Hetty Johnston, took a prominent role in complaining about the work of Bill Henson.
Bravehearts Internet site can be found at http://www.bravehearts.org.au/index.ews
The Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery's Internet page promoting the work of Bill Henson can be found at http://www.roslynoxley9.com.au/artists/18/Bill_Henson/